Resistance and Obedience to God: Living in the Divine Flow

Registration for this series has closed. If you are still interested, you need to be able to attend all the sessions starting September 8-9 and should reach out with your interest to: mwennerbradley@pym.org

“Resistance and Obedience to God: Living in the Divine Flow” is based on the book Resistance and Obedience to God, Memoirs of David Ferris (1707–1779). We offer a deep exploration into how we experience God and divine guidance. Study questions and queries are the foundation for a rich examination and sharing of how God reaches us and how we respond, deny, resist, struggle with, change, accept, follow, and then live in the divine flow.

We seek to help Friends delve deeply into understanding the flow of Divine Presence in our daily lives, including looking at our prayer lives (“Hello, hello? Is anybody there?”), perceiving guidance (“Am I making this up?”), self-worth (“Who, me?”), mystical experiences, and our fears about opening ourselves to the Divine.

We will see how the experience of Friends in the past may help us today to trust God to be present with us as with earlier Friends, to trust that we receive guidance today, and to know that we are worthy of, and able to follow, guidance from Spirit.

• The book for the course can be purchased from QuakerBooks of FGC or the FUM Bookstore. Please note that there was an earlier edition of the book, and participants need the edition edited by Martha Paxson Grundy, published by Friends General Conference, 2001.
• If purchasing the book is a hardship, please contact mwennerbradley@pym.org

*Registration is for the whole series, which cannot be joined once in progress. You will be sent a Zoom link after registering. 

Opening Session #1, parts 1 and 2:

• Friday, September 8, 6:30–9:30pm — Receiving and Trusting Guidance
• Saturday, September 9, 9:00am–12:00pm — Identifying gifts and fears

Sessions #2-6: (all 9:00am–12:00pm ET)

• Saturday Sept. 23 — Moving through our fears and accepting the task
• Saturday Oct. 7 — Finding the deeper fears
• Saturday, Oct. 21 — Living in the divine flow by sustaining the effort and staying on track, part 1
• Saturday, Nov. 4 — Identifying where we’re stuck
• Saturday, Nov. 18 — Living in the divine flow by sustaining the effort and staying on track, part 2

Sample Queries: 

• Do you think God provides guidance? Where does this conviction come from? Why do you want to obey such guidance?
• Have I experienced a break-through spiritual experience? What was it like? 
• Have I ever made a decision without waiting for divine guidance out of fear or out of inability to hang on until guidance came? What was the outcome of that? What might have helped me wait long enough? 
• Ferris says that if we fully submit, “our peace will flow as a river.” Have I experienced that? 
• Is there a concern or leading which I have fought for many years, or which seems like I will never be able to do? What holds me back? What do I need in order to submit/accept it?

Co-Facilitators:

Shulamith Clearbridge is a member of Swarthmore Monthly Meeting. She has taught workshops and classes all her life. She has taught privately, for organizations, institutions, and continuing education programs. She has led workshops, Quaker Meetings for Healing, and adult education programs for monthly and quarterly Meetings in Vermont, Seattle, and the Chicago area, for New England Yearly Meeting, Friends General Conference, and for Quaker retreat and conference centers, including two workshop series at Pendle Hill in 2021-22. For the 2021 FGC Gathering, Shulamith co-facilitated (with Joel Cook) an online version of “Resistance and Obedience to God: Discovering the Divine Flow in Our Lives.” In addition, she has led programs on spirituality and Quakerism for church and interfaith groups. Shulamith is the author of Pendle Hill Pamphlet 479: “Plain Talk about Dying: The Spiritual Effects of Taking My Father Off Life Support.”

Joel Cook is a member of Palm Beach Monthly Meeting, Southeastern Yearly Meeting. Joel has led Bible and other workshops at Southeastern Yearly Meeting sessions for a number of years.  He has also facilitated retreats at Friends Meetings in Southeastern Yearly Meeting. Joel led a five day workshop, “Seeking St. Paul,” at the 2011 Friends General Conference Gathering.  He presented the daily Bible Half Hour at the 2014 Friends General Conference Gathering using the gathering theme: “Let Love be the First Motion.” At the March 2019 Friends World Committee for Consultation Section of the Americans meeting Joel brought the message to the Sunday plenary worship. For the 2021 Friends General Conference Gathering Joel co-facilitated an on-line workshop “Discovering the Divine Flow in Our Lives,” based on “Resistance and Obedience to God, Memoirs of David Ferris (1707–1779).” Joel was the 2023 Michener Lecturer at Southeastern Yearly Meeting.